


The Good Die Young

by EllieMurasaki



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Community: fic_promptly, Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Episode: s03e08 A Very Supernatural Christmas, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-01
Updated: 2010-10-01
Packaged: 2017-10-12 08:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/123025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/EllieMurasaki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At what age do you teach your child to kill?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Good Die Young

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ani_bester](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=ani_bester).



The last thing Mary ever says is "Watch out for Sammy." Later, John cradles Sammy and Dean, listening to the sounding of the trumpet that shall never call retreat, and swears that whatever killed Mary, whatever wants Sammy, it'll never touch his boys.

John leaves Dean and Sammy with Mike and Kate while he's out talking to the police and Missouri and looking for answers. That's no longer an option once John overhears Kate on the phone, saying she thinks John might not be a fit father for them. Maybe it's true, but _something_ is after Sammy, and no one is fit to parent his boys who doesn't know jack shit about protecting them. Not that John knows jack shit about protecting them, nor do any of the motel clerks John pays twice minimum wage (he only steals from people with more money than sense, with particular fondness for those he learns don't do a damn thing to support America's veterans) to keep an eye on the boys while he's out, but at least John knows there's something to protect them from, more than the usual run of nasties. Of course, the usual run of nasties are quite enough; John comes back one day to find the clerk left at the end of her shift at the desk (that's the end of paying sitters in advance) and the next clerk locked the boys in the motel room, and Dean's sitting in the corner with Sammy sleeping on a pillow behind him, holding a Gideon Bible with blood on the cover and staring down three rats, one bleeding. John finds them a hotel that isn't the absolute cheapest available, then hands Dean a small knife in a leather sheath and starts drilling him on how to use it. Dean's five.

Then, of course, Dean asks why John can't stay around to keep the rats away himself, and there's nothing to do but explain. After John burns the wrong corpse and the ghost he was trying to be rid of follows him home, it doesn't look like there's any choice about teaching Dean everything John's learning. There's no need to teach Sammy, though. Better not to tell Sammy about any of this at all. John's sure, after all, that he'll find and kill what killed Mary before Dean starts kindergarten...before Sammy starts kindergarten...before Dean starts middle school...

Then Sammy finds John's journal and the only choice is to fill him the rest of the way in. There's still no need to actually train him, though. But then there's something burning down houses starting with a kid's room (survival correlated to distance from the fire's origin, no indication that ceilings are in any way involved, _fuck_ it), and right on cue Sammy freaks out about something in his closet. Dean has had his own gun for a couple years and Sammy thinks Dean walks on water. Whatever this is (if what's in Sammy's closet actually is anything, but something could sneak into the houses while nobody's home and hide in a closet till the kid's asleep) might not be vulnerable to lead slugs, but having something that makes loud noises when Sammy sees something more than shadows will get John's attention in a hurry, and knowing something about self-defense will reassure Sammy. Sammy's nine.


End file.
